Dr. Taesoo Ahn

How does team identification affect sport consumer behaviors in different settings?

Dr. Ahn is an assistant professor of sport management at Merrimack College. Currently, he teaches courses in sport management program such as introduction of sport management, sport marketing, and sport practicum (internship).

His long-term research goal is to investigate the question, “how does team identification affect sport consumer behaviors in different settings (e.g., new media usage, team product consumption)?” He believes that team identification can be a significant role to differentiate between sport consumers and other general consumers (or among sport consumers) in terms of their behaviors. Team Identification can be defined as “the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection to a team and the team’s performances are viewed as self-relevant” (Wann, 2006, p. 332). Based on the notion, his major line of research encompasses two main themes: (1) the effect of team identification on new media and technology (e.g., commercial sport website service quality, college athletic websites, secondary ticket websites) and (2) the effect of team identification on team merchandise consumption (e.g., new sport team logo design, sport brand alliance, ticket bundling).

His research has been published in Journal of Sport Management, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, European Sport Marketing Quarterly, and International Journal of Sport Management. He has also given numerous presentations in conferences such as Sport Marketing Association (SMA) Conference, North American Society of Sport Management (NASSM) Conference, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference, College Sport Research Institute (CSRI) Conference, and others.